Malaysian opposition leader acquitted of sodomy
By macleans.ca - Monday, January 9, 2012 - 0 Comments
Anwar Ibrahim freed after a two-year trial
Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of Malaysia’s main opposition party, has been acquitted of sodomy after a two-year trial. Judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah dismissed the accusation after determining the DNA evidence collected in the case was unreliable. The charge against the former deputy prime minster arose in 2008, following elections in which he led the opposition to major gains. Mr. Anwar, as leader of the opposition coalition is widely held to be the main threat to the current government’s 50-year rule. Mr. Anwar previously spent six years in prison on separate charges of corruption and sodomy after a fallout with former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohammad. The government is calling his most recent acquittal proof of the independence of Malaysia’s judiciary.
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Malaysian model caned for drinking
By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 5:00 PM - 15 Comments
Kartika wants to be punished in public, not in a Malaysian jail
Six lashes—that’s Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno’s sentence for quaffing a beer with a few friends in a Malaysian bar. Kartika, a part-time model, will be the first woman caned there, and her case has divided the Southeast Asian country. Drinking isn’t technically illegal in Malaysia, but since Kartika is Muslim she is subject to Islamic sharia law, under which the consumption of alcohol is a punishable offence.Moderates and non-Muslims say the ruling establishes a dangerous precedent by disregarding human rights and undercutting the mainstream Malaysian legal process. According to Hamidah Marican, executive director of Sisters in Islam, which works to strengthen women’s rights in Malaysia, “Kartika’s case has . . . caused damage to Malaysia’s reputation as a model Muslim country.” Continue…
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Malaysia halts English experiment
By Julien Russell Brunet - Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 5:00 PM - 1 Comment
The schools will now teach math and science in Bahasa Malaysia
For the past six years, Malaysian state schools have taught math and science in English, the international language of science and business. But that experiment has recently come to an abrupt halt: in 2012, teachers will return to using the national Malay language, Bahasa Malaysia, in the classroom.The announcement comes after months of demonstrations by the ethnic Malay majority, who were demanding a return to Malaysia’s traditional language. They say the use of English in schools undermines their struggle to modernize Bahasa Malaysia and develop a domestic scientific lexicon. Continue…
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Bad ideas and sacrificial lambs
By Steve Maich - Friday, September 19, 2008 at 9:31 AM - 7 Comments
Following in the misguided footsteps of market regulators in Britain, the U.S. SEC is…
Following in the misguided footsteps of market regulators in Britain, the U.S. SEC is instituting a “temporary ban” on short selling in the U.S. markets. In a week of depressing, frightening bad ideas, mindless grandstanding, and scapegoating, this may stand out as the worst example of panicked non-thinking.
The last major country to institute a “temporary ban” on short selling was that bastion of free enterprise and forward thinking, Malaysia, which banned short selling during the Asian currency crisis in 1998. They got around to lifting the ban seven years later.
Chris Cox caved to political pressure and threats, lobbed by dim wit politicians who truly don’t understand the way the stock market works. Short sellers aren’t the problem, and never were. But every horror show has to have a villain. Free markets, it seems, are really only good in theory.
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When ex-punk princesses travel
By Lianne George - Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 12:49 PM - 0 Comments
Remember when Avril Lavigne wore men’s ties and baggy sk8ter pants and skull-and-crossbones hoodies…
Remember when Avril Lavigne wore men’s ties and baggy sk8ter pants and skull-and-crossbones hoodies and a permanent scowl? She really was a breath of fresh air.
Nothing complicated about that.
But now, all that’s left of her former image is the scowl. That’s because a 17-year-old “punk princess” sells records, but a 23-year-old one is just sort of unpleasant.
And so: booty-popping lessons. Continue…
